


Those Who Refused To Cower Before Death

by LadyBrooke



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-23 02:21:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10710177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke
Summary: Finduilas dies pinned to a tree and is buried by the Haladin. She refuses to shy away from her fate.





	Those Who Refused To Cower Before Death

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Legendarium Ladies April and Last Fan Standing on Dreamwidth, prompt "pool".

Finduilas cries when she first taken by the orcs, screaming for Túrin to do something and rescue them.   
  
He turns away, entranced by the dragon, and she realizes that he will not rescue her (and perhaps no one could who was not as in thrall to love and duty as Fingon was for Maedhros could have rescued her). She is as cursed as any other Exile, for she walked across the ice on gangly legs, and the Valar have never cared if they were an adult, child, or not yet born when they laid their doom.   
  
She does not cry as they lead her away at the front of her people, captives all of them, and she spares a thought for poor Gwindor. She meets the orcs’ eyes, and does not shy away, no matter how many whispered rumors she has heard that they used to be elves and men and those taken captive may meet the same fate.   
  
Her great-grandfather died facing Morgoth and her father died battling orcs and a dragon, and they both had weapons that she does not have.   
  
She can hear the signs of approaching warriors, perhaps the Haladin or perhaps elves from Doriath.   
  
She can see the orcs turn on the other elves, killing all of them.   
  
She is the last to die, her blood pooling beneath her where she is pinned to the tree by a spear, and she refuses to cry out for a rescue that is not coming or beg Námo for a mercy he has shown none of them.   
  
The Haladin bury her in a mound that they name Haudh-en-Elleth, which her people and the other Men take as a sign of her being a proper maiden, and the House of Haleth means as a honor for a woman who refused to cower before death.


End file.
